跟讀練習: Introduction to Housing - City Beautiful Basics - 通過影片學習英語口語
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When I was a kid,
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I learned that the three things a human needed were food, clothing, and shelter.
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Shelter, or housing, is still as essential as ever.
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Yet we seem to have a hard time providing enough high-quality affordable housing to everyone who needs it.
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We have people who sleep on the streets without it,
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and people who live with their parents unable to afford their own.
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This video will discuss several important facets on the topic of housing.
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We'll touch on home ownership, housing affordability, and homelessness.
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Let's get started after the bike bell.
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Let's start by talking about homeownership.
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The United States is currently a nation of homeowners.
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About 65% of households own the home they currently live in.
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That figure isn't true everywhere.
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College towns often have higher rates of renting than owning due to all the student rentals.
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But in general, more households own than rent.
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This is in part due to cultural reasons.
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Our country has attributed certain values to homeownership,
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like stability and family, but also for more practical ones.
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Once a household pays off their home loan,
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they don't have to pay for that housing anymore,
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same for taxes and insurance.
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That's a nice benefit.
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They also don't have a landlord telling them they can't paint their walls.
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Finally, homeownership is the primary form of wealth accumulation in the United States.
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For many, homes are an investment.
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Renting has its perks too.
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You won't be burdened by expensive repairs to your home,
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as your landlord has to take care of that.
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And it makes your housing situation more flexible if you need to move frequently.
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and owners tend to have different needs, interests, and demographics.
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Homeowners are disproportionately wealthy and white.
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And because there are more homeowners in the US,
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they tend to have a lot more political power locally.
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This is part of the reason communities across the United States are dealing with the Not-In-My-Backyard movement, or NIMBYism.
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Homeowners are concerned about their property values,
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and it's such an important form of wealth accumulation,
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they're nervous about any change to their neighborhood that could lower their property values.
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Now, this is not true for all homeowners everywhere,
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but I need to bring this up as nimbyism is an extremely powerful movement in local government.
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Renters, on the other hand,
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tend to be lower income, more diverse, and younger.
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Their needs aren't always given the same consideration as homeowners.
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This is even true at the level of federal housing policy.
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In the United States, we have federal government policies that assist people with both owning and renting,
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though it's generally a better deal to be a homeowner.
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That's because the federal government offers the mortgage interest deduction.
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This allows homeowners to deduct the amount they pay on mortgage interest from their taxable income,
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which means they pay less in taxes.
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It's really a very good deal,
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and that means that the government forgoes billions of dollars every year,
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essentially a giveaway to homeowners.
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There is no such thing as a rent deduction for renters.
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Low-income renters have a few programs aimed at them,
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and the most important are housing choice vouchers.
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These are sometimes known by their old name Section 8 vouchers.
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Very low-income households can apply for them,
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and they provide additional money to help pay for the rent on a home.
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Households still have to pay 30% of their income toward rent.
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This program has helped millions of households find housing,
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and the waiting list for this program can get very long.
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They're getting even longer these days because housing is increasingly unaffordable.
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Not too long ago, this was a crisis that only existed in major cities,
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particularly those in coastal cities.
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Today, it's spreading all over the map.
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Even those who can afford a house find it challenging to manage the payments.
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In my home state of California,
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4 in 10 households live in unaffordable housing.
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This means that those households are spending more than 30% of their income on their place.
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It's even worse for renters when compared to owners.
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More than half of renter households paid over 30% of their income toward housing in 2017.
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And more than a quarter of renters paid over half their incomes toward housing,
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a position the Department of Housing and Urban Development considers severely cost-burdened.
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How did U.S cities get into this crisis?
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Well, like many issues facing local governments,
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the answer is complicated and multifaceted.
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Some of the causes are structural or at the nationwide level,
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out of the reach of local policy intervention.
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This includes wages that have not grown as fast as housing costs have,
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increasing the affordability gap.
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But there are things governments can do to get out of the crisis,
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because sometimes the crisis is due in part to local policy decisions.
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Right now, there's simply not enough new housing being constructed in the United States to keep with population growth and urbanization,
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the process of people moving into urban areas.
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There are a few reasons for this.
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First, people may not want to live next to more housing or higher density housing.
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In many cities, upwards of 90% of the land area is zoned for single-family homes.
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Zoning is the practice of assigning land uses and intensities to parcels in a city.
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Most land in cities is meant for the exclusive production of single-family homes.
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This is not an efficient use of land,
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as we see more people moving to cities.
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And residents of these Most of these single family neighborhoods often
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do not want to see their zoning change to allow for more housing nearby.
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This is due in part to something I mentioned earlier in the video, property values.
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Residents worry that increasing the zoning intensity and housing nearby will have a negative impact on their property values,
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harming their long-term investment.
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That said, cities
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and states across the US are making strides to allow for the construction of more market rate and affordable housing.
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There's no easy answer, and most communities are using a variety of approaches to attack the problem from all sides.
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Here are a few key strategies.
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The first is allowing accessory dwelling in as an area zoned for single-family housing.
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These are small, attached or detached homes on the same property as a primary residence.
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These ADUs can be affordable housing,
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particularly because they're small, and can provide an additional revenue source for the family living in the primary residence.
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If ADUs, as they're known,
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are built throughout all the land zoned for single-family,
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it can significantly increase the number of available housing units.
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The best thing about these new small homes is they really don't change the character of the neighborhoods.
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They're often out of sight in backyards,
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and most neighborhoods have sufficient curbside parking to accommodate the new residents.
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On a similar topic, cities can encourage the construction of missing middle housing.
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Missing middle housing is called that because it's housing bigger than an apartment
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but smaller than a full-size house and is often not built at all in US cities.
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ADUs are one example of missing middle housing,
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but so too are duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and townhomes.
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Families today come in all different sizes,
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and having a wide variety of housing types ensures the right fit for everyone.
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If you're a single person living alone,
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a 2,000 square foot single family house may may not be appealing,
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but you might buy it anyway because you want to build equity and take advantage of those wealthy accumulation benefits,
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even if you hate the idea of mowing a lawn.
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You might have purchased a townhouse instead with a modest patio out back if that had been an option.
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And as a bonus, townhomes and other missing middle housing are a more efficient use of land,
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allowing more people to live closer to jobs,
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schools, parks, and other amenities.
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To make missing middle housing happen,
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we have to zone more land for higher density housing,
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lower parking requirements, and possibly incentivize construction.
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There's one last strategy I want to mention in this video,
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and I want to be clear again that there are so many strategies that I can't mention them all,
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like allowing sneakers to stay or apartment buildings,
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allowing owners to split their lots,
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funding public housing programs, and more.
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But the last thing I wanted to mention was mixed-use housing.
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This means zoning more land in our cities for housing to coexist with shops,
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restaurants, dentist offices, and other compatible uses.
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This often looks like an apartment building like this.
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Commercial uses on the ground floor,
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and a few floors of housing above.
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This allows people to walk more to their daily destinations,
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which can reduce emissions and traffic.
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Many cities have areas zoned for mixed use,
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but they're only found in the central business districts or near high frequency transit stations.
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Expanding mixed use zones allows for more housing construction and helps create pleasant walkable neighborhoods.
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Cities need to encourage the construction of more housing as soon as possible
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because people in poverty are experiencing the worst of its effects,
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and many are becoming homeless.
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It's a myth that all homeless people are addicted to a substance or mentally ill.
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Increasingly, it's people who can't find housing they can afford.
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This can be due to an eviction,
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rising rents, family strife, or some other reason.
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Some of the homelessness is invisible to us,
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the person sleeping in their car,
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or couch surfing between friends and relatives.
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What can be done?
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Well, the first one is obvious, build more affordable housing.
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More available housing will likely lower rents,
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making housing more attainable to low-income people.
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One of the most cost-effective ways of addressing homelessness is helping those people who are housing insecure.
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Now, these are people paying a majority of their income on rent,
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experiencing overcrowding or can't make rent on a regular basis.
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One of the most important things we can do for this
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group is expand the Housing Choice Voucher program I mentioned earlier in the video.
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It would help people receive a reliable source of rental assistance.
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This program works well, but is underfunded for the need,
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particularly in this crisis.
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Back in 2013, only 26% of eligible households received assistance,
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and this is likely worse today.
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Of course, communities should have homeless shelters to temporarily house those experiencing homelessness.
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But shelters are a short-term solution,
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and communities should develop pathways to get people in stable, longer-term housing.
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This can include transitional housing,
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a halfway step between a short-term shelter and permanent, affordable housing.
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People experiencing domestic violence or mental illness may need separate transitional housing to support their particular needs.
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Thank you.
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為什麼要通過這個影片練習口語？
通過觀看和跟讀這段關於住房的影片，您可以在真實的語境中提高英語發音和口語表達能力。影片中討論了房屋所有權、住房可負擔性和無家可歸等重要話題，提供了豐富的語言素材。使用英語影子跟讀技巧，您可以模仿講者的語調、節奏和發音，從而提高自己的發音和流利度。學習如何將這些表達應用於實際生活中，使您在和他人交流時能更加自信。
語法與表達在語境中的應用
- 獨立主格結構：在影片中，講者提到“Once a household pays off their home loan”，這個句子展示了動作的先後關係。在練習中，可以通過相似的句式來提高您描述因果關係的能力。
- 被動語態：為了突出受詞，講者使用了被動語態，例如“homes are an investment”。使用被動語態可以幫助您在面對不明確的動作執行者時，更加簡潔地表達思想。
- 對比結構：講者對房主和租客的需求進行了對比。這種結構的表達有助於您在不同觀點之間作出清晰的對照和比較，提高您在辯論時的表達能力。
常見發音陷阱
在影片中，部分詞彙的發音可能對學習者造成困惑。例如，“homeless” (無家可歸的) 這個詞，尤其是在快速語速下，容易被誤讀。為了提高您的發音準確性，可以在練習時多加註意每個音節的清晰發音。此外，shadowspeaks 的方法能夠幫助您透徹理解這些發音的特點，確保您在交流時不被地方口音干擾。
通過不斷練習這些語音結構和表達，您將能夠更流利地使用英語，同時提高整體的口語能力。使用有效的影子練習活動，您不僅能自信地與他人對話，還能在英語的各個領域中游刃有餘。
影片中的語法
說話人最常用的結構，並附上影片中的原話：
| 結構 | 影片中的用法 |
|---|---|
| 被動語態 be + 過去分詞 — 強調發生了什麼，而不是誰做的 | won't be burdened · aren't always given · are sometimes known |
| 定語從句 who / which + 從句 — 補充說明人或事物 | everyone who needs · people who sleep · people who live |
| 現在完成時 have/has + 過去分詞 — 過去發生但與現在仍有關聯的事 | has attributed · has helped · have not grown |
什麼是跟讀法？
跟讀法 (Shadowing) 是一種有科學依據的語言學習技巧，最初開發用於專業口譯員的培訓，並由多語言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。這個方法簡單而強大：您在聽英語母語原聲的同時立即大聲重複——就像是一個延遲1-2秒緊跟說話者的影子。與被動聽力或語法練習不同，跟讀法強迫您的大腦和口腔肌肉同時處理並模模擬實的講話模式。研究表明它能顯著提高發音準確性，語調，節奏，連讀，聽力理解和口語流利度——使其成為雅思口語備考和真實英語交流最有效的方法之一。